Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Been doing some packing this morning. It really is tricky, trying to figure out what should come back to the U.S with us and what should stay here. Like, as far as clothing goes, we've agreed (Rob & I) that we'll each bring enough clothes for a week, plus a few church-worthy items. The rest will remain here as our plan is to buy some new stuff to replace the things that are wearing out. Most of Rob's shoes are wearing through the soles. And my everpresent red shoes have seen far better days - I need new casual shoes that can multi-task as professional.

One weirdness that I discovered this morning - a fair number of my underwear items have gone missing. I know this because I counted what was one hand this morning and certain notable items are not among the items available. I can't say for sure where they might have gone. My current theory is that they walked out of my suitcase during one of our hotel stays in Gaborone. That's all I can figure since our clothesline isn't accessible by those outside the gate. Just weird.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Well. Now, I feel really bad for my last post. We had a swarm of winged bug things attack the house last night - heard a sound like rain but found when we looked outside that it was only hundreds of bugs hitting the window. We hurried around the house, shutting windows because it seemed like they were even getting in through cracks around the edge of the screens. I got the one in the living room, without turning on the light because that was what was attracting them to the windows in the first place. Bad idea.

When Rob went to open the living room window in the morning (there's a lovely cool breeze at this time - thanks be to God), he found a squished adult lizard in it. I just didn't see it when I was pulling the window in. Ghastly.

Rob cleaned up the mess, didn't even make me see it. Thanks, Rob. I feel bad enough about it as it is.

Ironically, I killed about 20 palm-sized flying bugs last night as well, all the ones who got in through the window-cracks. I had to get them before they crawled on the clean dishes in the drying rack and stuck to them, rendering Rob's efforts useless. Yet, for a massive swath of bug-killing, I feel no qualms. Funny, that.

Friday, November 13, 2009

The hot bug right now is anything that looks like a cockroach, regardless of color, texture or size. It's odd how bug seasons are here, changing all the time. And, to accompany the new bug trend, we have a tiny gecko skittering about. You know those dreams you have about having a tiny pet that is so small that you accidentally end up squishing them, either by sitting or stepping on them? Well, that's my waking life right now. It hasn't happened and I pray that it doesn't. Just gotta turn the lights on before I enter a room and look down before I step.

I wrote my GRE exam on Monday and it went very well. I like that they give you the results for the verbal and quantitative section immediately, so you don't have to go away wondering how you did, for the most part. Now, almost all the arrangements have been made for the first leg of our home leave in 2010. All that remains to to finalize a car plan for Texas, schedule speaking things for the the last half of the year and get a car arranged for the speaking tour. We're talking to an organization in Indiana that specializes in providing transportation for missionaries and full-time church workers; looks promising.

Rob had a recording session on Saturday that went well, despite some equipment snafus. His main choral mic has been acting up, these last 2 recording sessions, making a sort of popping noise. Time for a technical checkup - he'll have to send his mics for tune-up, make sure everything is in tiptop condition before we return. It's a good thing we're going back now, now that his gear is needing attention.

Just made a schedule for our last 10 weeks here - hard to believe it's only 10 weeks before we fly! Have to get everything packed to move out. And almost 4 of those weeks are completely booked, with us having to physically be somewhere other than staying in our own home, making multi-tasking impossible. But we've packed in shorter times before so we should be alright.

Did I mention recently that it is hot here? The weirdest thing: we woke up this morning to the smell of rain and a cool breeze blowing through the living room window. Yet, when we looked outside, not a raincloud in sight. Now, the smell is gone with nothing to show for it. What was that all about?!? The weather forecast is for rain this weekend but I would gladly have taken it a day or 2 earlier. Sticky, me.

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marriage survey

I'm always curious about how it goes down, how my friends got with the one they're with. So, thanks to Survey Monkey, I'm now hosting a survey of my married friends. Click here to take the survey. Survey responses are anonymous; I'm just looking for an overall feel, general patterns. When I get 100 responses, I'll share the trends here on the Dancing Sni. I tried to come up with questions that people would enjoy answering. Please... feed my curiosity!